Thursday, October 14, 2010

Pata de Puerco

~The follow message is not for those that are squeamish or for those with the faint of heart or weak stomach's. Reading this passage may bring side effects of dizziness, nausea, shortness of breath, heart failure, fainting, and/or visual images. hahahaha yeah, seriously though don't read this if you are eating or just ate. ~

Yup that's right......I tried Pata de Puerco..... Literal translation for those of you that don't speak Spanish is.... FEET OF PIG!!!!! it was .....DISCUSTING!!!!!!!!! It was so sick..... luckily though I only grabbed a little and then of course she put a little more on my plate, (a member). It was thee most revolting thing I have had yet, because it reaked.... even though it was cooked, and the bones skin fat and (little meat really), were in it......literally the whole foot of the pig was on the serving plate. and just wait!!!! THE HAIR WAS STILL ON IT TOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHH! ew ew ew ew. For those of you that know me I gag if there is hair in my food... so that was sick when I had to ....dispose of the hair lets just say. Luckily there were lots of tortillas and hot sauce and beans..... I tried to mask the flavor of that with all of those and just ate it fast...but at the same time I would just stare at it and not want to eat it. I just kept eating more beans and tortillas and tried to get full off those while still trying to get rid of the pig feet.... I just didn't eat the skin or fat though, I refused haha. Well, I said that it was "good" but that I was too full. haha So yeah I avoided as much as I could, but the rest I just use all the other food to wash it down. It was gross because I reaked of pig feet afterwords and just felt it in my skin too ...lol I just concentrated the rest of the night not to puke. Luckily I didn't get sick.... I have a stomach of iron!
Well that's it for the food corner.....as for me, I don't know how my body does this everyday! 15 hours of working straight. All I can say is the Lord really does bless his missionaries really well and takes care of them because without this calling my body physically wouldn't be able to do this everyday for a year and a half, and it's not just physical but I am so drained of energy and just fatigued at the end of the day mentally, physically and spiritually. No wonder we get 3 hours of studying time in the morning and exercise too. I'm grateful for it and for the blessings of the Lord because amazingly enough my body does this everyday. As strange as it is and as tired as I am all the time, I have energy and animation!!!! Even when people yell at us or slam the door in our face or screen our calls or visits or my favorite, look through the peep hole on their doors and pretend like their NOT home when we knock... EVEN though we can totally hear them inside. haha yeah. But the people that do listen are AWESOME! I love it....I love them! They make it all worth it to see their willingness and desire to learn and have an open heart and mind and then see the AMAZING blessings and changes in their lives. It's just awesome.
One thing that I just want to say about the Book of Mormon (BOM) is that IT IS SOOOO TRUE!!! Ok honestly, everyone, If people will just take 3 weeks of their WHOLE entire life and experiment on this, and as Alma said, "Arouse their faculties even to experiment on his word and exercise a particle of faith, even if it's no more than a desire to work in you till you come to believe that you can give to that faith and come to know if these things are true or not..." Alma 32:27-31. IF you do this with a true desire and intent to know if this church is true and what I'm preaching to people everyday for a year and a half is true then READ THE BOM!!!! Heavenly father loves you SO much! and He has provided a convincing way, Convincing Evidence of what we, as missionaries, say is true, and that evidence is the BOM. You can hold it in your hands and read it for yourself. It's proof of the true nature of God and His love for us. It contains the promises that Heavenly Father made with the ancient prophets of the Americas and with you today too. Those promises are Eternal life, eternal families, salvation, remission of sins, peace, joy, happiness, love, comfort, help, success .... The list goes on! And it's all up to you to find out for yourselves. That's what we do as missionaries, we teach the doctrine, we apply it to the peoples needs and help them see and testify of how it can truly better their lives and help them. We as missionaries are witnesses of this and are representatives of Jesus Christ. We feel His love that He has for all of his children, otherwise we wouldn't be doing this for 18-24 months.... separated from our own families and lives. We leave our families for a time so that other families may become eternal families too. We invite people to come unto Christ through faith, repentance, baptism by immersion, the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. And that way you can know of these things, that they are true and are all in the BOM. It's evidence of God's love for us. It's another testament of an entire civilization here in the Americas.. and helps us understand in clear simple terms the words and teachings of the Bible too. We invite everyone to:
1. Read the BOM
2. Ponder (really think and apply it to yourself) the message it contains
3. ask God, in the name of Jesus Christ if it is true.
Those that do this, will receive these promised blessings ...
1. Know that Jesus is the Christ, our Redeamer and Savior
2. Know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet called of god and that the prophets today are truly called of god receiving divine revelation from God
3. Know that this church is true and that it is the Lord's kingdom here on earth.
It's true. I've read it, and I've pondered about it and have received SO much help and light, truth, knowledge, wisdom and personal revelation from it. I've prayed to Heavenly Father to know that it was true and I felt it burn within me that it was and is true and the word of God. This is what we INVITE ALL to do... but because God loves us, he has given us free agency to choose to do it or not. So it's up to the people's free agency to accept or reject.
I love you all and have to go now. I hope you all are well. Mom please also maybe send me some candy corn? :-) or anyone else that wants too. haha. Please say hi to uncle Don, Mike and families for me .... I always feel so close yet so far away haha. Say hi to the office for me too please Rod.. Do they ever read my emails or blog??? You should tell them to write me hahah.

Love you all!
Hermana Dunn

Monday, October 11, 2010

more pictures!

View of Santee

No privacy here on the Mish!! Good place to study though.... Santee yard decorations I guess... ha ha

Tawny and her companion working hard, weekly planning!!

One of Tawny's favorite temple shots

The Natives running from the border patrol!! ha ha not really. Just a little P-day fun

Second Baptism in Santee Aug 29th. Alexis Sequra

Santee District goes to the Mexican Boarder on P-Day

Saturday, October 9, 2010

PICTURES!!!

Sorry I couldn't get this picture to flip your gonna just have to turn your head haha




Hello everyone from Chula Vista!

Hello everyone from Chula Vista! We went to the temple today and it was awesome! So pretty! and here's the pictures that were just taken today! The entire outfit I have on is not mine it's my roommates haha. That's how sister missionaries can dress now though cause the wardrobe has totally changed from plane Jane to cute!!!! and I have NO clothes that are cute ha ha ha. oh well.
So here's a fun story. Last Tuesday night we were getting into bed saying our prayers and all and our carbon monoxide alarm went off!! So we got out of the house and called the mission pres and his wife and they basically said to come stay at the mission home that night ! That was fun!!!! hahaha We were all excited because no one gets to go to the mission home except when you come and when you leave! The beds were sooooo comfy and the house is HUGE!!!!!!!!!! and right on top of a hill, so great view!!! It was like a field trip haha. Turns out that the carbon monoxide thing was just doing random testing beeps and there was NO carbon monoxide in our apt so DONT WORRY! haha We don't even have any gas anything in the house so I don't know why it would go off, but every apt has one just in case! so that's good!!!!
We found more people that are going to get baptized! They are sooo ready and basically came up to us!!! One of them went to conference which was awesome.... She loved it! We also had "MTE (missionary training exchanges)'' where president Donaldson trains us. HE IS AMAZING!!! HE IS A GENIUS!!!! he is soooooooo smart! He knows soooooo much about the gospel AND THEN SOME!!! He knows a lot about Hebrew too... That TOTALLY gives the gospel and scriptures new meaning! It's just amazing. Apparently when we go home from the mission he gives every missionary a CD with 4000 pages worth of his notes on it! I'm excited! Makes ME wanna take a Hebrew class!
It's really a privilege to be here though. I love San Diego mission! I heard something cool from Pres Donaldson that this is the mission where the missionaries that are going to be the next leaders of the church come and that those that are reassigned here are coming here to learn something specific from this mission about being a good leader! I thought that was cool and feel honored to be here and wont mind at all if I end up not getting to go to Argentina even though I still want to. I really do love it here though!
Well I love you all and have to go!
I'll write more next week.
Love,
Hermana Dunn!

Friday, October 1, 2010

Well, it's gorgeous down here in sunny San Diego! hahahah! All you Eskimos in Idaho and Utah, freezing. heheh. Just kidding. It's been really hot for Chula Vista though. It was 97 yesterday and it's almost October!!! It's been really muggy too. But the SUNSETS!!! Oh my gosh! I love California! The sunsets have been so pretty and clear the last week. Pink orange, yellow sunsets. and the moon the last couple days was HUUUUUGE!!!! and super close and orange! So pretty! It's really pretty at night too when we go up in the hills in a part of our area where there's nothing but fields and then you see Tijuana lights on the hill next door. it's really pretty! even prettier when we're coming down out of the hills at sunset, like the other day, and see the sun setting on the ocean....TJ to your left and San Diego skyscrapers to your right. and a sea of lights ahead. pretty pretty! shout out to Emily right now, cause I know your just hating the fact that your only reading this right now and not seeing it for yourself haha. sorry!
Funny little observation....I've been noticing lots that the Hispanics love to spend money on grills! hahah not BBQ grills, and not the grills on your car, but "Grillz" on your teeth, for those of you that don't know what they are. haha. It's Hilarious! They like to look flashy and "hot" all the time and "pimp" with their grillz. haha. I've also noticed that there are some people here that remind me of the hispanic version of people at home. #1....Shout out to Autumn at Rod's office! There's a member family here. they are a young couple with 3 kids age 13 and younger and the mom SOOOO REMINDS ME of the Hispanic version of Autumn....only a little more serious haha. I LOVE that family! They are awesome. It's funny though how much she reminds me of her. #2 A shout out to my little admirer Ryder Fuqua! hehe, there's another member family who I LOVE and they have a little one year old that is super sweet and has the cutest smile and that smile reminds me of Ryder! ....So very random, but I love it haha.
So for the week....it's been slow. We are struggling to find more people to teach. And the investigators that we Do have are SUPER busy all the time and never have time to see us and are never home. Plus everyone goes to TJ on the weekends! ahh! But we're pluggin along. It's a trial of our faith and willingness to keep on keepin on, but we're doin it! During personal Study the other day I thought of something that i would like to request from anyone and everyone who is willing to share. And that is.....
Please send me a letter of something that you have recently learned in your gospel study that has changed your life....OR/AND one of the biggest lessons you've learned in life (about anything...doesn't have to be gospel related) that helped you change for the better. I don't know why, but I was just curious, and also thought that it might help me relate these experiences to some of our investigators. I wouldn't tell them that it was your experience....or if it's private then just say so in the letter and I wont share. But this is all totally up to you whether or not you want to do it. You certainly don't have to if you don't want, or don't have time. (plus it's fun to get mail! :- ) )
I think one of the biggest lessons I've learned here on the mish as you all may as well know, is faith and trust in the lord! Even if things aren't going the way you planned, to always just keep putting your faith and trust in the lord....cause he works in mysterious ways! It's hard though at times....that's for sure, but life is hard....and it's hard for a reason, and that's to help us learn and grow in experience and faith. haha a movie quote that just popped into my mind which I HAVE to say of course is, "Life IS pain! Anyone who says otherwise is selling something!" - The Princess Bride haha. you know me! Love to quote movies still!
Well I'm sorry this letter isn't as exciting. But I love you all! And I love my mission! Oh, I guess a little something is that there are GINORMOUS SPIDERS down here! And big nasty June bugs or something that all seem to come to me! Of course! So there have been several screaming, jumping, heart failure moments for me when I encounter them. haha my companion laughs at me.
LOVE YOU GUYS!!!
Hermana Dunn